The King of the World
Reginald Featherbottom (not his real name) came to the US as
a kid and lived with his family in our neighborhood. When he was young, he was
best friends with my son. He tagged along with us on vacations, and kept us
entertained with his quick wit, intellect, and insistence on wearing
flip-flops, come hell or high water. When he was around 13 or 14, he joked that
one day he wanted to be King of the World.
Today, he lives modestly with his wife and daughter, and
enjoys a life free from consumer debt. He’s part of a movement that is changing
the culture of money. RF is saving—and saving a LOT. He visited us last year, after traveling
cross-country on an RV adventure with his wife and toddler. Here’s my interview
with Reginald Featherbottom, King of the World:
Me: Please provide a little background about yourself.
RF: I've lived in San Diego CA for the last 19
years or so but was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in the DC area (in NoVa)
until after college. I'm married now with a 3 year old girl and a baby boy on
the way and live in a pretty typical house with a yard and a dog. I own a real
estate brokerage that does property management and residential property sales.
I am 40 years young (which is how old people say how old they are) and trying
desperately to not get any fatter.
Me: What was the culture of money in your family? Was your family wealthy, or poor?
Me: What was the culture of money in your family? Was your family wealthy, or poor?
RF: We grew up in a
working class family, but my parents were frugal and hardworking and quickly
climbed up the financial ladder without a huge income. With barely middle class
incomes, they were able to save a lot, buy a house within 3 years of moving to
the U.S., and have lived at that house for 30+ years. I learned from my parents
and I was also pretty frugal by nature. I always knew to save for a rainy day.
I never missed out or lacked for anything growing up, but we never had any
fancy luxurious vacations either (outside of tagging along on my friend's
family vacations!).
Me: Did you have other money influences?
RF: I ended up going to an Ivy League school where I met a lot
of really rich people (as well as poor and regular folks) and got to see
another side of life with money that I had never seen before. I vacationed at
friends’ beach houses and ski resort condos, and visited friends’ parent's
mansions. It was an interesting experience to say the least. My first job out
of college was in investment banking and you got to see how big money works. I
didn't really like the environment or the working hours so I quit after 1 1/2
years and went my own path, eventually ending up in real estate.
Me: And you did pretty well, right away?
RF: I got into real
estate when the big condo conversion boom was happening in San Diego and made
and lost my first small fortune early in my career between 2004 and 2008. I had
to dig my way out of that hole and ended up starting my own company in 2008. I
was able to work for the last 10 years or so growing my company and I have been
able to achieve some minor success as a profitable small business owner.
Me: Your attitude toward money and success shifted. What
happened?
RF: It was during my
travels in SE Asia during my honeymoon in 2014 that got me thinking about FIRE
(financial independence /retire early), and living on less--and simply--when I
saw how little people in these countries needed to live. I wanted to live a
more simple life and not stress about finances and making money all the time. I
read about Mr. Money Mustache by chance from a Marketwatch.com article (his
biggest exposure I think) and it got me reading all of his blog; and also
earlyretirementextreme.com (which is a really funny site if your sense of humor
is dry). I got excited about making life changes to maximize my savings and
being on a path to FIRE.
Me: What life changes have you made since then? Have you
done anything drastic?
RF: In the early
stages after getting married, we were a little more extreme than we are now.
The King (and his Queen's) Frugal Wedding!
We got two roommates
to fill our spare bedrooms for a year, we sold off my Acura and got a used
truck and then sold that and got a really used minivan. I have bought the last cars
in cash. I have decided never to buy a car that I can't afford to buy outright
in cash and haven't done so in 5 years.
I NEVER carried a
credit card balance and always paid off the balance each month. I knew that if
I couldn't afford to pay it off that month, then I couldn't afford to buy it.
If people realized that one thing about credit cards, then most people wouldn't
dig themselves into such holes.
I had also wanted to
travel around the U.S. so we rented out our house last year and did a 4 month
RV trip around the country. It was fun and crazy at the same time. It wasn't easy with a
growing 2 year old who wasn't having it in the car seat after a while. But we
were able to achieve one of my life dreams pretty cheaply by having rented out
the house and also buying and selling a used RV to do it in.
2017 Frugal RV Trip
I tell my wife
that we SAVED money by going on vacation. I don't think you need to do crazy
things to save money or make more money. People are generally very resistant to
change, but I never minded doing whatever was needed to achieve something that
I wanted, so it's never been hard for me to make the changes.
We live pretty simply
and are not big spenders. Having a wife who was also never a big spender has
helped greatly. We never really fight about money, so I can only imagine how
hard it is for couples who disagree about money. We don't always agree on the
little items. I still think she buys too many knickknacks for our kids and she
thinks I buy too many knickknacks for me. I explain to her that they are TOOLS
that I need and that the Amazon Echo and the bluetooth speaker set have
immensely increased our enjoyment of life, thank you very much.
Me: Have you
experimented with gardening or farming?
RF: I have 7 chickens
in the backyard as well as lots of fruit trees and a small vegetable
garden. I don't think they are saving us
any money as the water bills are pretty high and 4 out of 7 chickens haven't
laid a single egg so far. I'm giving those 4 until spring to lay (they are
about 8 months old) or they may become chicken soup.
First Egg and The Chicken Coop
Me: How do you think your lifestyle compares to your
non-Frugal peers?
RF: I think it is
pretty similar. I'm definitely not depriving myself of anything and I probably
have more "stuff" than many people.
But we hardly buy any new clothes or "treat" ourselves to
Starbucks. We don't have cable, only
internet. We do have a Chromecast, which
we use a lot. We also have a pretty
reasonable food budget even though we eat mainly organic produce from
Costco. We have saved a ton of money by
not buying much baby stuff and mostly got by with hand-me-downs from my sister
and friends. We got SO MANY
hand-me-downs from friends in terms of clothes, toys, books and baby items. We also bought a used stroller-- and buying
used makes it cheap to get quality stuff.
We just got a fancy double stroller that was originally $600 for $150
lightly used. We plan to sell it back
when we are done for whatever we can get for it at the time. We just try to think of ways to do things creatively
and do without something if at all possible.
Not buying something is honestly the best way to save money--not
clipping coupons.
Me: How much debt have you paid off?
RF: We have paid off
my student loans, car loans, paid off my office condo that I own, paid off one
of the houses that we own with my parents, paid down a lot of the 2 other
properties that I own, and continue to invest in outside opportunities. I wasn't heavily in
debt to start so it was more about spending less so that I could invest more
and grow the ‘stache more. But it's been amazing to watch just how much was
saved and invested and grown over the last 5 years. I didn't think it would
have grown so much in such short time. I honestly did not know what my net
worth was when I started 5 years ago. I knew I had some money and wasn't broke,
but I couldn't really tell you exactly. Going through the process of cataloging
and keeping track of all your assets, income, and spending, really helped me
figure out what I needed to focus on. If you want to get serious about personal
finance, you HAVE TO do this.
Me: What are your financial or lifestyle goals?
RF: In the last 5
years or so, we've achieved a comfortable financial situation and I guess we
are mostly just saving and investing towards a future when I could spend more
time at home while the kids are still young and focus on raising them and
teaching them until all of them are in elementary school when I plan on
returning to work more full time. It's a
good place to be, but money worries never go away, even if it's something as
seemingly simple as "where should I invest my money so that it's not
sitting in my checking account?" Also, I'd like to enter into different
work that I find more fulfilling because I've been doing real estate for a
while now and it's not a challenge for me anymore and I always need some sort
of a challenge to mobilize my passion for living.
Me: What has been your biggest obstacle?
RF: I wouldn't say
it's been an obstacle but our first born was born with lots of life-long
medical complications and needed lots of surgeries. It was very stressful and
also cost a bundle in medical costs.
We were lucky enough
that all the earlier savings made it so that we never had to worry about
getting needed medical services and we were able to provide all the things that
we thought she needed. So I guess it was a monetary setback but it was
anticipated and budgeted so it didn't really affect us on a day to day basis.
I think not having to
worry about money during unexpected financial crises is one of the greatest
rewards of living a frugal life and having financial security. People need to
realize that "unexpected" only means that YOU didn't expect them, but
many unexpected things are really very regularly occurring things like water
heaters going out, cars breaking down, people getting sick, etc. You NEED to
anticipate and expect them to happen whether you want them to or not and plan
for it.
Me: What advice do you have for others who want to achieve
financial freedom?
RF: 1. It can be done
for ANYONE. If you make the necessary changes and keep it up, then you can
achieve whatever goal you set.
2. You have to be
willing to make the changes necessary to make it happen. If you are unwilling
to make needed changes, then don't be surprised if you don't achieve your
goals.
3. You really need to
both save money and make more money to be most effective. Using a sports
analogy, you need a good offense and a good defense to win games. If you are
strong on one side but really weak on the other, it's much harder to win.
4. Always focus on the
big picture and attack the large ticket items that have the biggest returns.
Don't spend 10 hours clipping coupons to save $5 on items that you don't even
need. Don't spend 5 hours a day Ubering to make $30 extra. That's not how you
will become rich or financially independent. We all only have a limited amount
of time here on Earth. Learn to spend it well. Get the best bang for the buck
in all that you do. To save money, first focus on the 3 biggest items, mine
were housing, transportation, eating. To make money, focus on both the short
and long term view to maximize your earning power.
5.One of the most
important tools for saving money is automation and deducting savings first. So
I have set up my retirement funds to be automatically taken out of my paycheck
and to be automatically deposited into a Vanguard SP500 mutual fund. I also
have several after-tax investments set up to deduct directly from my checking
account monthly. Taking yourself out of this decision chain is perhaps the most
important thing you can do. Same thing with paying your mortgage or the bills.
I try to automate everything. I am currently trying to figure out what to do
with some extra income streams and decision making is hard. If you just make a
decent decision and stick with it by automating it, then you've really won 90%
of the battle. Life is so much better when it is simpler. I also have
everything set up on Mint.com to keep track of it.
Me: Where do you find inspiration?
Me: Where do you find inspiration?
RF: These days, I find
new inspiration from blogs, youtube videos, documentaries, etc. I also try to
get more exposure to the great outdoors for peace of mind and inspiration. I am
currently on a health kick of sorts and doing intermittent fasting and more
juicing/smoothies. I have found that the 18/6 intermittent fasting (eating only
during noon-6, with healthy lunch/dinner only) has been the only thing that has
worked for me recently to lose weight. It is simple and once you get used to
it, it's really easy.
I also find
inspiration from trying to provide for my family and kids. I want to be able to
spend more time with them during their formative years so that they can look
back at their childhood and have happy memories. I think my parents were a
great example for my sister and me, and I now appreciate all the things that I
learned from them. Having seen all the horrible parents out there who really
mess up their kids, I am thankful that I lucked out with good ones. If one day
my kids can look back and think fondly of their childhood then I will consider
myself a success as a parent.
